Gems From Bhagavan

[Guest guest]

The book Kaivalya Navaneeta has asked and answered six questions on maya.

They are instructive:

 

1. What is maya? The answer is: It is anirvachaniya or indescribable.

 

2. To whom does it come? The answer is: To the mind or ego who feels that

he is a separate entity, who thinks 'I do this' or 'This is mine'.

 

3. Where does it come from and how did it originate? The answer is:

nobody can say.

 

4. How did it arise? The answer is: Through non-vichara, through failure

to inquire 'Who am I?'

 

5. If the Self and maya both exist, does it not invalidate the theory of

Advaita? The answer is: It need not, since maya is dependent on the Self

as the picture is on the screen. The picture is not real in the sense that

the screen is real.

 

6. If the Self and maya are one, could it not be argued that the Self is

of the nature of maya and that it is also illusory? The answer is: No, the

Self can be capable of producing illusion without being illusory. A

conjuror may create for our entertainment the illusion of people, animals

and things, and we see all of them as clearly as we see him, but after the

performance he alone remains and all the visions he created have

disappeared. He is not a part of the vision but solid and real.

 

 

(Gems from Bhagavan, selected by A. Devaraja Mudaliar)